CHAPTER 7 – THE INVITATION BACK
Sienna received the envelope at 7:14 AM.
No return address.
No name.
Only a key card inside.
And coordinates.
She arrived at a building she had never seen listed.
Glass. Minimalist. Silent security.
The receptionist didn’t ask her name.
She already knew it.
“Room 9,” the woman said.
Inside, Grant Vale was waiting.
But not alone.
Two chairs.
A long table.
And a file with her name on it.
Sienna didn’t sit.
“You destroyed my career,” she said immediately.
Grant looked up calmly.
“No,” he replied. “You revealed how easily it could be destroyed.”
A pause.
“That’s not the same thing.”
Sienna stepped closer.
“Why am I here?”
Grant leaned back slightly.
“Because you reacted exactly as expected.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“This was planned?”
“Yes.”
She laughed once—sharp, disbelieving.
“So what am I? A case study?”
Grant didn’t answer immediately.
Then:
“A threshold.”
The word hung in the air.
Sienna’s voice lowered.
“For what?”
The door behind her opened.
Eli walked in.
Sienna froze.
Not because she knew him—
May you like
But because she recognized what he represented.
Someone else who had been inside the same trap.
